Piloting innovation and market linkages to transform smallholder dairy
value chains in Tanzania
This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, June 2016
Key Lessons
• Transforming dairy value chains requires efforts of a range of stakeholders
including producers, local institutions, the public sector, private businesses,
research and financial institutions.
• Hubs and “Innovation platforms” are effective multi-stakeholder processes for
bringing together these stakeholders to solve common problems.
• Multi-stakeholder processes can be organised at various levels:
 At villages level, they build on farmers’ groups, cooperatives and dairy market
hubs. They link market actors, connect producers with intermediary and final
customers, consequently increasing income at the household level
 At district and regional levels, innovation platforms integrate research,
innovation and extension interventions alongside business actions. They can
contribute strongly to formulating and implementing district dairy
development plans
 At national level, the Dairy Development Forum has a strategic role in
formulating coherent policies and convergence of initiatives
• A hierarchy of platforms at different levels can improve policymaking and
planning, and could attract further investment.
Background
Challenges to dairy value chain actors
Figure 1. Developmental challenges in the dairy value chain in Tanzania
Approach
• The chosen approach recognizes that for dairy sector in Tanzania to function
effectively and efficiently, all value chain actors need to coordinate their
efforts and be linked to demand-responsive knowledge, research and
extension systems. This includes multi-stakeholder processes at different
levels: farmer groups and dairy market hubs in villages, innovation platforms
in districts, and the Dairy Development Forum (DDF) at the national level.
• Village level: Strengthening and championing existing and new groups to
achieve economies of scale by improving access to inputs and services,
creating incentives to raise productivity and addressing risks inherent in
production and marketing through dairy market hubs for pre-commercial
producers (and/or innovation platforms in some cases) to become more
commercial.
Figure 2. How a dairy market hub provides inputs and services without
collective bulking and marketing
The Partners:
• District and regional levels: As the focal point for planning in Tanzania, the
district should also be the focus for strengthening the dairy value chain.
Innovation platforms are a multi-stakeholder process that involve a range of
actors at the district level: representatives of producers’ organizations,
traders, processors, input suppliers, veterinary services, research, extension,
financial services and local government. Such platforms enable these
stakeholders to identify and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the
dairy value chain, and find ways of overcoming the challenges and
developing the chain further. Several district-level innovation platforms can
be linked together to form a regional platform to address issues at the
higher level.
• National level: The role of the DDF, with its Secretariat at TDB, is to address
systemic bottlenecks and engage in policy dialogue. Its national convening
power complements the efforts of district and regional platforms.
Figure 3. Theory of Change targets more private and public investments to
replicate the pre-commercial hub approaches in inclusive ways
How lessons contribute to Livestock Development Strategy for Africa
• Tanzania has the 3rd largest cattle population in Africa with 25m heads kept
by 1.7m households. Only about 780,000 (3%) are improved dairy breeds.
Milk availability is low and per capita annual consumption is only 45 litres.
• Access to and use of inputs and services is low but has immense potential for
improving livelihoods: the 20% of livestock keepers that use extension
services have a net annual income of USD 430 per typical herd, compared to
USD 138 for those who do not (NBS/FAO)
• Recognizing this potential, a consortium of research and development (R&D)
partners comprising CGIAR (ILRI, CIAT), Sokoine University of Agriculture,
Tanzania Livestock Research Institute, Faida Market Linkages, Heifer
International and Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) came together to help
transform the sector through innovation and improved market linkages.
• Commonly referred to as Maziwa Zaidi, this partnership has a vision of an
“inclusive and sustainable development of the dairy value chain” over 10 yrs.
• Projects contributing to lessons: 1) More Milk in Tanzania (MoreMilkIT )
Irish Aid funded project on adapting dairy market hubs for pro-poor
smallholder value chains, and 2) Feeds innovations project (MilkIT) funded
by the International Fund for Agricultural Development
LiDeSA Strategic Objective Contributions Gaps and/or opportunities
1. To attract public and private investments along the different
livestock values chains
Theory of Change is aligned to this objective (see Fig. 3) Government support for dairy
sector R&D investments
2. To enhance animal health and increase the production, productivity
and resilience of livestock systems
Multi-stakeholder processes (hubs and innovation
platforms) can improve access to inputs & services
Effective linkages to existing public
extension system is required
3. To enhance innovation, generation and utilization of technologies,
capacities and entrepreneurship skills of livestock value chain actors
Multi-stakeholder processes As above
4. To enhance access to markets, services and value addition Multi-stakeholder processes As above
Amos Omore and Edgar Twine
International Livestock Research Institute, c/o IITA - East Africa Hub, P. O Box 34441, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
7th Africa Agriculture Science Week,
Kigali, Rwanda, 13-16 June 2016